Portimao day 2 Superbike test results

Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) set the fastest time on the second day of official World Superbike pre-season testing at Portimao. On a day hit by bad weather and despite yesterday’s finger-damaging crash, the 22-year-old Northern Irishman made all the difference both on the wet track in the morning and in the afternoon’s damp session on intermediate tyres. Rea’s best lap today was 1 minute 49.108 seconds, about seven seconds off yesterday’s dry lap times.

Behind Rea, second place went to Leon Haslam, who continues to settle into his Suzuki Alstare team after dominating yesterday. The surprise of the day however was Troy Corser, who took his BMW S1000RR to third with an excellent 1’49″606. Ruben Xaus also went well with seventh quickest time on the second BMW.

Cal Crutchlow continued his familiarization process on the Yamaha Sterilgarda machine in fourth, ahead of Tom Sykes who went well in the wet on his Kawasaki. Max Biaggi could only manage ninth today on his Aprilia as he focused on engine reliability. Both Ducati Xerox riders Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio are currently slightly down the timesheets, the Italian still down with a virus and not exactly 100% fit.

Michele Pirro continues to make a positive impression on his new Hannspree Ten Kate Honda mount, the Italian powering to the quickest time in day 2 of Supersport testing. Pirro set a time of 1 minute 47.168 seconds on the damp track, four-tenths quicker than Spain’s Joan Lascorz, who was quickest in the dry on Friday. The Kawasaki Motocard.com man had a harmless crash in the early stages and failed to improve on a 1’47″527.

Eugene Laverty, who topped the timesheets in the wet morning run, then slipped down to third, followed by his team-mate Miguel Praia. Italian Paola Cazzola, a new face in Supersport this year, made some improvement to twelfth, one place behind the rookie American Jason DiSalvo (Triumph).